Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
er's suggestion was to bring the grid to the front and exploit it as a concept, with the
size of the squares corresponding to the size of the story.
The team reduced the styling of the graphic blocks further, removing rules as they let
the background separate the stories, minimizing the type styles and adding colour to
differentiate sections.
Interface
In parallel to the look of the app, the designers were constantly working through
various navigation methods. To get and share an understanding of this model, Andy
Brockie and Jack Schulze from the design consultancy Berg spent some time creating
animatics (simplified paper mock-ups shot using a camera and tripod and then anim-
ated together in sequence). These helped them quickly get a sense of how a reader
could navigate the app and were also useful to pass over to the development team.
Although the iPad offers a whole range of touch gestures - drag, swipe, double-tap,
two-finger interaction, and in addition the option of limiting these to a particular part
of the screen (some apps reveal their navigation if you double-tap only in the top area
of the screen) - the designers aimed to make the app work with the most basic of
these: single-tap and swipe. They wanted any navigation options to be simple enough
that making them available all the time did not add visual clutter.
